Former United players included Kevin Gallacher and Paul Hegarty and former bossed Ian McCall and Gordon Wallace.

TV presenter Lorraine Kelly, an avid United fan, was with daughter Rosie.

There were tears and laughter as the hour-long service was peppered with stories about Thompson and music from his favourite band, the Beatles, plus Rod Stewart and Neil Diamond.

But it was the words of Levein which had many in tears.

He said: "In the short period of time that I knew the chairman, we became very, very good friends.

"He was a privilege to work with the last couple of years - and he was not an easy man to work with. God forbid if he read something in the newspaper or heard something third-hand that I'd forgotten to tell him."

"But you wanted to work for him because the greatest quality he had - and I've spoken to other managers about this - is what we're all looking for in our players and that's leadership.

"And he had it in spades.

"When I look to sign players, I look at their passion.

"And when I look at the chairman, he's the most passionate man I've met in life and particularly in football.

"I'd go up and see him after training some days and he'd be showing a group of school kids or people from abroad round his boardroom and telling the history of Dundee United."

Talking about Thompson's illness, Levein said: "What a brave man when I think of him in the hospital and coming back in agony, having received some treatment.

"Instead of going home, he'd come into the office to do some work and for long spells he didn't take painkillers.

"Even when he was in a wheelchair and he wasn't supposed to come to the club, he sent Mrs Thompson for the shopping and ordered a taxi and got himself in. He was an amazingly determined man."

After the hymn Morning Has Broken, his coffin emerged from the church carried by six United players.

The Tannadice terracing favourite Beautiful Sunday pounded out through the loudspeakers and those in the street burst into thunderous applause.

He once said: "You can change your wife, your house and your car but you can never change your team."

He is survived by his wife Cath, their daugher Justine, son Stephen and four grandchildren.